According to the state-run China Daily, 7,000 mostly small mines will be forced to halt production by the end of the year and will not reopen until they have reached national safety standards.

To minimise the corruption that has worsened the problem, local government officials have also been told to withdraw all their shares in private mines by September 22.The rising death toll at pit faces - 2,672 miners died in the first six months of this year, a 33% rise from 2004 - has embarrassed the communist government, which is often accused of sacrificing miners' lives to secure the cheap fuel needed to power the country's spectacular economic growth.
The first batch of 1324 unsafe mines ordered to stop production and improve conditions or face permanent closure was announced by the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, the China Daily newspaper said.

On 20 July 2005, the National Bureau of Statistics announced that in the first half of the year, China's GDP has reached 6742.2 billion Yuan, a 9.5% increase compared with the same period in 2004. Coal production climbed to 940 million tons in the first six months of the year, a 9.7% increase compared with the same period in 2004.

“All these accidents and statistics reveal an undeniable truth: a greater number of workers' lives are being sacrificed for GDP growth”, thinks the China Labour Bulletin, an information network founded in 1994 in Hong Kong by independent trade unionist Han Dongfang.

China Labour Bulletin pointed out that the nation's budgeted coal production is set in an unrealistic level and the coal price has been set far too high, giving local governments and mining companies an excuse to use whatever means to exploit the mines and the workers. Increasing demand for coal and the rocketing price of coal has given rise to illegal mining in small shafts, leaving more and more miners' lives in grave danger.

To end the tragedies, China Labour Bulletin insists that the coal miners should be allowed and officially encouraged to form their own health and safety committees, with members directly elected by the workforce and playing a monitoring role at the coalmine. Moreover, these worker-staffed bodies should have the right to order a suspension of work whenever they, not management, find that conditions underground have become hazardous.

More information in:

• The Guardian
• China Labour Bulletin